This movie has atmosphere. The story needed work. Acting is fine. Production is good.Good cinematography, and music will raise the ratings on this. The story needed more work. The acting was good. Fx were good. Great set designs. Take a look at the apartment and the antique shop.This is a B movie, the rating is a B – for the story, or 6. 7 given for balance.

First off, "Manhattan Baby" is not a very good title for this movie. There is no baby, though the film does take place in said city. Which is not very surprising, Fulci loved New York often filming scenes and such there even when the city itself was not prevalent in the plot. He also did not get permission to film there for the most part, hence the strange zombie scene on the bridge where the zombies are in a area not really known for having all that many people and traffic below was normal. Here the film starts in Egypt as a archaeologist proceed into a tomb that is cursed with one brave soul. Is this brave soul to become a lifelong friend of our hero? No, but he got the point of the film. While dad is exploring his daughter is handing money over to a woman who apparently went to "The Beyond", another of Fulci's films, perhaps his best. This woman had the creepy eyes and they played recycled music from that film throughout this one which either indicated the two films were somehow related, or they skimped on the music budget. They return to their home in New York where the dad is blind then better in a flash and the daughter and son are both acting strange. Part of the problem with this film, they indicate only the girl is being taken over, yet the boy too seems kind of strange. So we have the dad who refuses to believe anything strange is happening when one of the mom's coworkers simply vanishes and sand is left behind and we have a pointless scene of a security guard being killed in boring fashion. Where is the gore? Not much in it with the exception of the bird attack at the end, which at least the best kill was saved for last. Having very little plot worked for "The Beyond" as it had better pacing, kills were never all that far apart. Here the film drags, one to many shots of eyes, I realize it is his trademark, but here it just seems silly at times. This one just did not do it, it needed an explanation, all I know is that the medallion the girl had was somehow doing rather pointless things. Why? Who knows. The babysitter disappears and the boy seems partly responsible and seems to be just as possessed as the girl, but this is not explained either. Still, it had a nice flair and set up some interesting things, it just fails to deliver a really good payoff other than the bird attack. Then it ends in a generic fashion. I enjoyed some of the other supernatural horror films of Fulci's, but this one kind of ends up being pointless as while leaving things unexplained in "The Beyond" worked, it hinders this film.

Manhattan Baby is Fulci's dive into beautiful imagery. There's some scenes in this one that are genuinely breathtaking.A medallion from an archaeological dig leaves a man blind. And a family falls into jeopardy after their son disappears into thin air, and their daughter is possessed by an ancient demon.If the budget hadn't been cut for the film, I would imagine that this would be Fulci's most memorable film. People would think 'Manhattan Baby' instead of 'Zombie' when they heard the name Lucio Fulci.Most horror fans haven't seen this one. It's true that MB isn't a film that succumbs to everyone's tastes. This is simply because in most Italian films, it's usually style over substance, which in some cases can leave an unseasoned viewer in total awe at the apparent inept plot line before them.In Italian films (especially), you have to pay very close attention to the whole film. Certain plot definers aren't given 'camera-attention' at crucial times at any given time through any given film. in American films, the camera tells the story. The same can be said for Italian cinema, but a lot of times, it's much more subtle in its delivery and can leave one feeling incomplete until they eventually see it again.Anyway, should you watch Manhattan Baby? Sure. I'll recommend it. It's a beautifully shot film with hardly any of that Fulci gore we all expected. It also has a great Gothic score that adds tons of surrealistic atmosphere that pulls you in for the most part.Not a film for everyone, but the guru's of the cinema world will find a lot of redeeming qualities to talk about.

Wow...MANHATTAN BABY was a REAL let-down from one of my favorite Italian directors. I've liked everything of Fulci's that I've seen so far - except for this piece of garbage. Going in to a Fulci film, you figure you're gonna see some serious over-the-top gore (especially his trademark "eye trauma" scenes...), probably some misogynistic sexual violence or at least some decent "full-frontal", and usually a relatively entertaining plot. Not so on all counts for MANHATTAN BABY...This one is about a girl who receives an amulet from a mysterious stranger while on vacation in Egypt with her parents. The amulet is linked to some sort of evil Egyptian god and the girl ends up becoming possessed. Her family gets help from a local antiques dealer who has knowledge of the evil amulet. There's the requisite struggle of "good and evil", then the end...MANHATTAN BABY is a poorly written and acted film with obvious nods to ROSEMARY'S BABY and THE EXORCIST - but with nowhere near the power or atmosphere of either of those films. Most of MANHATTAN BABY's plot is confusing and honestly quite stupid, so even if you DO follow what's going on, you don't really care. There is only one decent gore scene which is tame by Fulci standards and no nudity and or sex/sexual violence and the few "special FX" used in the film are so cheap and amateurish (even for '82) that they are laughable ("lasers in the eyes" and "stuffed birds on strings" anyone?...). MANHATTAN BABY seems to be a film that Fulci made for a more mainstream audience, and I'm glad this does not represent the majority of his works. For suggestions on GOOD Fulci films, try ZOMBIE, GATES OF HELL,THE NEW YORK RIPPER, THE BEYOND (among many others...). Leave this one on the shelf. 3/10 (and that's only for the one gore scene and the "classic" line - "You can kill my body with stuffed birds, but you can never take my immortal soul!!!")